Who has had an MRI on their pug?

We have an opportunity to do an MRI on Ichiro, in state, for the first time ever.

He has a back injury that has been ongoing for the last 16 months. The veterinary specialist believes he has lumborsacral myelopathy. Possibly spondylosis.

Anyway, medical treatment with anti-infammatory, acupuncture, rest, etc has had a minimal effect for him. He still has periods of pain and stiffness. And, his tail has never once curled back up. He has a permanently "broken" tail.

So, just wondering if anyone has any advice on having had it done. Your experience, your thoughts on the cost versus the gain of getting it, etc.

The cost quote is $2,300.

Kayla had an MRI in 2009. She had degenerative myelopathy, which has no treatment. But the MRI helped us rule out any other possible causes of her symptoms that would have been treatable. I think it cost us about $2,000. If you can afford it and have the opportunity to do it and Ichiro is healthy enough to be put under anesthesia, I would go for it. At least then you'll be able to rule out any issues that could be treated surgically.

Chyna had an mri done. She has degenerative disc disease. Surgery could have possibly slowed the progression but not stopped it or improved the problems she was having. Due to her problem being degenerative, I decided that surgery was too much for her at age 9. The neurologist said he was completely fine with the decision. Acupuncture has helped her a lot. She also takes a steroid every three days. She does very well on the three day regimen which is good since it helps other problems that might occur with steroid usage. Other anti-inflammatories did not help her at all. She has control of her bladder but not her bowels I was glad that I got the mri because certain spinal issues could have really been helped with surgery

Imi had an MRI done prior to having surgery on her spine due to a ruptured disc pressing on her spine. The one thing I wasn't prepared for after the MRI was the alarming decline in her mobility due to the manipulation when she was under anesthesia, to do the MRI. She went from having fairly good mobility prior to the procedure to stumbling around barely able to stand afterwards. That was horrible. As most everyone knows I went ahead with the surgery and now a couple of years later I must say her mobility is pretty good for what she has been through and what is wrong. While stairs are out and she is slightly wonky, she can get around at a very fast clip when she wants to and doesn't seem to be bothered by it. The rapid decline after the MRI improved.

I would discuss with your vet the aspect of temporary worsening of the condition due to the manipulation under anesthesia and see what he/she can recommend to minimise it. Many good thoughts for this Renee!

Hmm. All very good things to think about.

Ichiro is 8 years old now, so it is tough for me to decide if surgery is a good option or not. I don't want to cause more damage than I am fixing, you know. But, I guess we won't have all the information we need until we get the MRI.

I am probably going to go ahead with it, but I will talk with the vet about the things you brought up Rona. I had not thought about that.

Winston had an MRI in June of 2009, he was diagnosed with syringomyelia. The cost for the MRI was $1900, cost of the neuro visit, labs and MRI was $2275. The only problems Winston had after the MRI was that his tongue never really stayed in his mouth after that, but he did have missing teeth, so that was probably the real cause of the tongue issue.